Lonnie Wheatley, PARK CITY, Kan. (April 8, 2022) – With a fist-pump as he took the checkered-flag, it was all Bobby Piece as he took the $5,000 winner’s share in Friday night’s Lucas Oil MLRA season-opening 30-lap feature event at 81 Speedway.
After gridding the feature field inside the second row behind pole starter Tad Pospisil of Nebraska and Texas’ Rodney Sanders, “The Smooth Operator” battled into the lead through the opening pair of corners and led throughout.
It wasn’t without a scare for the Oakwood, IL, racer though, as Sanders slipped by both Ryan Gustin and Pierce on a lap-12 restart only to have the move negated by a Terry Phillips spin that precipitated a caution flag.
“When Rodney got by me that was bad, and it would have been hard to get back by him that’s for sure. You have so much speed going into turn one and it’s such a tricky corner here and I knew everyone was struggling with it, it was really slick getting in,” Pierce explained afterward.
Pierce never left the door open again, ripping around the topside of the track leaving Gustin and Sanders to battle for runner-up honors in his wake as Chase Junghans joined in on the fray for the position in the closing laps.
As Pierce streaked past the checkered flag, Gustin prevailed in the battle for second with Junghans taking the show position from the 13th starting position. Sanders settled for fourth with Johnny Scott rounding out the top five as Chris Simpson, Stormy Scott, Pospisil, Chad Simpson and Jake Timm completed the top ten.
After Pospisil set the overall quick time of 16.402 seconds, he along with Pierce, Sanders and Gustin bested heat race action for the 39-car field with Trevor Gundaker and Darrell Lanigan winning the twin “B” Mains.
Lucas Oil MLRA Super Late Models
81 Speedway – Park City, KS
Friday – April 8, 2022
Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models:
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 32P-Bobby Pierce[3]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 3. 18-Chase Junghans[13]; 4. 20-Rodney Sanders[2]; 5. 1ST-Johnny Scott[9]; 6. 32S-Chris Simpson[11]; 7. 2S-Stormy Scott[10]; 8. 04-Tad Pospisil[1]; 9. 25-Chad Simpson[7]; 10. 49T-Jake Timm[14]; 11. 56L-Darrell Lanigan[18]; 12. 93-Mason Oberkramer[23]; 13. 10-Jacob Magee[20]; 14. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[6]; 15. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[17]; 16. 15-Justin Duty[24]; 17. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[19]; 18. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[21]; 19. 11H-Jeff Herzog[12]; 20. 76-Blair Nothdurft[16]; 21. 30-Todd Cooney[5]; 22. (DNF) 3-Brennon Willard[25]; 23. (DNF) 75-Terry Phillips[15]; 24. (DNF) 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 25. (DNF) 92S-Dan Smith[22]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[2]; 2. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[1]; 3. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 4. 15-Justin Duty[5]; 5. 99L-Scott Lewis[4]; 6. 93-Mason Oberkramer[8]; 7. 1X-Aaron Marrant[7]; 8. 14W-Dustin Walker[6]; 9. 7D-Dusty Leonard[10]; 10. 6C-Cale Osborn[9]; 11. B1-Dustin Bolster[12]; 12. 92-Delbert Smith[11]
B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 56L-Darrell Lanigan[1]; 2. 10-Jacob Magee[2]; 3. 92S-Dan Smith[4]; 4. 6H-Al Humphrey[3]; 5. 3-Brennon Willard[7]; 6. 50-Kaeden Cornell[11]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz[6]; 8. 47-Chris Bratcher[5]; 9. 10 4-Adam Popp[8]; 10. 60-Jonathan Lindberg[10]; 11. (DNS) 60H-Kip Hughes
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 04-Tad Pospisil[1]; 2. 30-Todd Cooney[3]; 3. 1ST-Johnny Scott[2]; 4. 18-Chase Junghans[5]; 5. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[4]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[6]; 7. 15-Justin Duty[8]; 8. 1X-Aaron Marrant[7]; 9. 6C-Cale Osborn[9]; 10. 92-Delbert Smith[10]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 32P-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 3. 32S-Chris Simpson[3]; 4. 75-Terry Phillips[4]; 5. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[5]; 6. 99L-Scott Lewis[6]; 7. 14W-Dustin Walker[10]; 8. 93-Mason Oberkramer[7]; 9. 7D-Dusty Leonard[8]; 10. B1-Dustin Bolster[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Rodney Sanders[1]; 2. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[2]; 3. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 4. 49T-Jake Timm[4]; 5. 56L-Darrell Lanigan[5]; 6. 6H-Al Humphrey[7]; 7. 47-Chris Bratcher[8]; 8. 3-Brennon Willard[9]; 9. 60H-Kip Hughes[6]; 10. 50-Kaeden Cornell[10]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 2. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 3. 11H-Jeff Herzog[4]; 4. 76-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 5. 10-Jacob Magee[3]; 6. 92S-Dan Smith[6]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz[7]; 8. 10 4-Adam Popp[8]; 9. 60-Jonathan Lindberg[9]
Dirt on Dirt Qualifying 1: 1. 04-Tad Pospisil, 00:16.402[5]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:16.495[4]; 3. 1ST-Johnny Scott, 00:16.600[9]; 4. 32P-Bobby Pierce, 00:16.608[20]; 5. 30-Todd Cooney, 00:16.674[10]; 6. 32S-Chris Simpson, 00:16.680[14]; 7. 11G-Gordy Gundaker, 00:16.682[6]; 8. 75-Terry Phillips, 00:16.802[12]; 9. 18-Chase Junghans, 00:16.902[8]; 10. 11T-Trevor Gundaker, 00:16.931[15]; 11. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:17.054[19]; 12. 99L-Scott Lewis, 00:17.073[11]; 13. 1X-Aaron Marrant, 00:17.073[16]; 14. 93-Mason Oberkramer, 00:17.080[17]; 15. 15-Justin Duty, 00:17.231[1]; 16. 7D-Dusty Leonard, 00:17.246[18]; 17. 6C-Cale Osborn, 00:17.274[2]; 18. B1-Dustin Bolster, 00:17.287[13]; 19. 92-Delbert Smith, 00:17.338[7]; 20. 14W-Dustin Walker, 00:17.368[3]
Dirt on Dirt Qualifying 2: 1. 20-Rodney Sanders, 00:16.512[15]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:16.645[2]; 3. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh, 00:16.662[12]; 4. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr, 00:16.764[16]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott, 00:16.915[10]; 6. 10-Jacob Magee, 00:16.986[18]; 7. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:17.067[6]; 8. 11H-Jeff Herzog, 00:17.132[8]; 9. 56L-Darrell Lanigan, 00:17.173[19]; 10. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:17.379[9]; 11. 60H-Kip Hughes, 00:17.795[14]; 12. 92S-Dan Smith, 00:17.804[7]; 13. 6H-Al Humphrey, 00:17.850[11]; 14. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:17.874[3]; 15. 47-Chris Bratcher, 00:17.914[17]; 16. 10 4-Adam Popp, 00:17.933[1]; 17. 3-Brennon Willard, 00:22.826[5]; 18. (DQ) 60-Jonathan Lindberg, 00:18.707[13]; 19. 50-Kaeden Cornell[4]